Elisabeth de Vermandois

Female 1085 - 1147  (62 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    All

  • Name Elisabeth de Vermandois 
    Birth 1085 
    Gender Female 
    Death 1147 
    Person ID I1604  Database
    Last Modified 26 Dec 2015 

    Spouse / Partner William II de Warenne,   b. 1071   d. 1138 (Age 67 years) 
    Children 
       1. Female Aleida de Varennes,   b. 1120   d. 1178 (Age 58 years)
    Family ID F706  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 26 Dec 2015 

  • Notes 
    • Elisabeth de Vermandois (1085 - 1147)
      Elizabeth of Vermandois, or Elisabeth or Isabel de Vermandois (c.1085- 1148), was the third daughter of Hugh Magnus and Adelaide of Vermandois, and as such represented both the Capetian line of her paternal grandfather Henry I of France, and the Carolingian ancestry of her maternal grandfather Herbert IV of Vermandois. As the wife of two Anglo-Norman magnates, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey, she is the ancestress of hundreds of well-known families down to the present time.

      Countess of Leicester:
      In 1096, Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan reputed to be "the wisest man in his time between London and Jerusalem" insisted, in deference to the laws of the church, on marrying a very young (c. 11 years young) Elizabeth, he being over fifty at the time. In early 1096 Bishop Ivo, on hearing of the proposed marriage, wrote a letter banning the marriage and preventing its celebration on the grounds the two were related within prohibited degrees. In April of that year Elizabeth's father count Hugh left on Crusade, his last act being to see his daughter married to count Robert. The crusader was able to convince Pope Urban to issue a dispensation for the marriage which then went forward.

      Her husband was a nobleman of some significance in France, having inherited lands from his maternal uncle Henry, Count of Meulan, and had fought at the Battle of Hastings as a known companion of William the Conqueror. He was rewarded with ninety manors in the counties of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Wiltshire. The count of Meulan was one of Henry I's "four wise counsellors and was one of the king's commanders at the Battle of Tinchebray 28 September 1106. In 1107 Robert became Earl of Leicester.

      Countess of Surrey:
      Elizabeth, Countess of Meulan apparently tired of her aging husband at some point during the marriage. The historian James Planché says (1874) that the Countess was seduced by or fell in love with a younger nobleman, William de Warenne for whom she left her husband Robert. William II de Warenne had sought a royal bride in 1093 in a failed attemptto wed Edith who later married Henry I, but obtained a bride of royalblood when he married Elizabeth in 1118, at the death of Earl Robert.Elizabeth survived her second husband William, dying c. 1148.

      Children:
      By her first husband, Robert de Beaumont, Elizabeth had three sons and five or six daughters. By her second husband, William de Warenne, Elizabeth had three sons and two daughters.